LIFE LONG LEARNING FOR THE 21st CENTURY FOOD
SYSTEM-WILL COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE RESPOND?

by
Lois Schertz Willett

Teaching and Learning Paper TLP 00-9

September 2000

The goal of the Teaching and Learning paper Series is to improve, enhance, and enrich
the teaching and learning environment in the department, college, university, and
profession through the publication of papers on teaching philosophies and techniques,
curricular issues, and case studies Papers are circulated without formal review by the
Food and Resource Economics Department and thus the content is the sole
responsibility of the faculty author or co-author.

Russell Porvisions, Distributor of Boar's Head
Deli Meat and Cheese: A Dicision Case

TRACER: A New Market Challenge: A Case
Study of a Marketing Plan for Dow Agro Sciences

Management and Advancement In A Theme-Based
Restaurant: A Case Study of the Ale House

Procedures For Peer Evaluation of Teaching In the
Food and Resource Economics Department

A Beginner's Guide To Understanding Mutual
Funds

A Business Analysis of Therapeutic Botanicals
Incorporated

Title

Ferdinand F. Wirth
Suzanne D. Thomsbury

Benjamin Brown
Allen Wysocki

Meagan Langford
Allen Wysocki

Cara Martin
Patrick Byme
Richard Wledon
Ken Buhr

Norman S. Baer
P.J. van Blokland
Gary F. Fairchild
John E. Reynolds

Gary F. Fairchild
John E. Reynolds
Tracy S. Hoover

Eric Garneff
P.J. van Blokland

Ronald Pearl
Gary F. Fairchild
Timothy G. Taylor

TLP 99-5

TLP 99-6

TLP 99-7

TLP 00-1

TLP 00-2

TLP 00-3

TLP 00-4

TLP 00-5

December
1999

December
1999

December
1999

December
1999

December
1999

December
1999

December
1999

January
2000

January
2000

April
2000

April
2000

August
2000

No. Title

Strategic Analysis of a Small Firm Competing in
the European Mango Market

A Strategic Business Analysis of Pike Family
Nurseries

Using Business Simulations and Issue Debates to
Facilitate Synthesis in Agribusiness Capstone
Courses

Raquel Guzman
Gary F. Fairchild

Gerado Sol
Gary F. Fairchild
Allen Wysocki
Karl Kepner

Gary F. Fairchild
Timothy G. Taylor

TLP 00-6

TLP 00-7

Author

Date

TLP 00-8

August
2000

August
2000

August
2000

LIFE LONG LEARNING FOR THE 21st CENTURY FOOD SYSTEM -

WILL COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE RESPOND?

by

Lois Schertz Willett*

Abstract: This essay presents a vision of the learning opportunities in agricultural and
managerial economics that Colleges of Agriculture could offer to meet the food system's life
long learning needs of the 21st century. The paper discusses what kind of curriculum will meet
these needs, how it will be delivered, where and when it will be offered, and by whom. Key
considerations in achieving this vision are detailed.

*Lois Schertz Willett is Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Florida. This
essay was submitted to the American Agricultural Economics Association's Essay for the 21st
Century Competition in September 2000. She thanks Bernie Erven, Carol Fountain, John
Gordon, Burl Long and Lyle Schertz for helpful suggestions.

LIFE LONG LEARNING FOR THE 21st CENTURY FOOD SYSTEM -

WILL COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE RESPOND?

"... Where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical

studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to

agriculture and the mechanic arts..." This mission, established by the Morrill Act of 1862,

guided the creation of the land grant university system and their Colleges of Agriculture so that

they would be institutes of higher education for everyone. Since the late 1800s, Colleges of

Agriculture have focused on the development of the agricultural sciences as a means of

improving production technologies and transferring this knowledge to producers. They have

been concerned with the social, economic, and institutional problems of rural communities and

the environment in which we live. They have engaged in the transfer of this knowledge to farm

producers and embraced academic programs focused on agricultural as well as non-agricultural

fields. Colleges of Agriculture have provided training for people in agriculture so they could

contribute to agricultural activities as well as transfer from agriculture to productive non-

agricultural activities.

You may have received your education from a College of Agriculture in this land grant

university system. You attended your animal science and farm management classes in a large

lecture hall, took notes, studied in your dorm room or the library, submitted projects on paper,

and took tests with paper and pencil. You had your questions answered by professors after

lecture or during their office hours.

Fast forward. It is the year 2045. You are a Hispanic, 35 year old mother of 2 working

in Miami as an economic analyst for the largest citrus production and processing operation in the

world. You recognize that your skills, enhanced by continued education in the communication,

technological, analytical, and management fields, are critical to your advancement in a food

system rapidly changing to meet the needs of savvy consumers. You enroll in Agribusiness

Management from the University of Florida and Econometrics from Cornell. You obtain your

training in markets from the University of California, Davis. You receive materials via video

conferencing, the World Wide Web, or a technology not yet available in the year 2000. You do

not sit in a lecture hall; you do not visit your professors in their offices. Rather, you tap into

teaching and learning modules via your computer and receive faculty assistance through this

medium as well. You are on the road to mastering new knowledge and gaining new skills that

would be impossible for you to obtain if the Colleges of Agriculture continued to insist that you

be in residence on their campuses to take courses.

Clearly, as we enter the millennium, there is an opportunity for the land grant Colleges of

Agriculture to respond to the agricultural and managerial economics life long learning needs of

this woman and other individuals in the food system. The issue is, will they? This essay

presents a vision of the learning opportunities in agricultural and managerial economics that

Colleges of Agriculture could offer to meet the food system's life long learning needs of the 21st

century. First, the paper assesses the food system's changing life long learning needs in

agricultural and managerial economics and the driving forces behind these changes. Second, the

paper discusses what kind of curriculum will meet these needs, how it will be delivered, where

and when it will be offered, and by whom. Finally, key considerations in achieving this vision

are detailed.

Needs and Driving Forces

As today's food system evolved in the 20th century, it became increasingly imperative for

individuals working in the system to have a broad-based understanding of the biological,

physical, mathematical, and social sciences and humanities. Skills in oral and written

communication were important in order to articulate visions, goals, and accomplishments in team

activities, presentations to Boards of Directors, business plans, and position papers. Skills in

human relations, leadership, and employee motivation were increasingly recognized as

Friedman, T. S. November 17, 1999. "Foreign Affairs; Next It's E-ducation." The New York
Times.

Kellogg Foundation. Visions of Change in Higher Education. Retrieved from the World Wide
Web, August 1, 2000. .

King, D., D. Cotton and A. Turgeon. June 29, 1998. The Challenge of the Knowledge
Marketplace: How Will the Land-Grant System Compete? ADEC Academic Program
Section Meeting. California Polytechnic/San Luis Obispo. Retrieved from the World
Wide Web, March 15, 2000.
marketplace.html>.

National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Board on Agriculture.
December 1996. From Issues to Action, A Plan for Action on Agriculture and Natural
Resources for the Land-Grant Universities.

Willett, L. S. September 1999. Distance Education Opportunities in Agribusiness Management
and Agricultural Marketing. Report to the Faculty, Department of Agricultural, Resource
and Managerial Economics, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Comell
University.